One Camera, One Lens?

[Sean Reid]

Nolan, that's a very good point, and I know exactly, what you mean.
"Smelling" the lens image is very nice...

Let me make a little correction: perspective is not made by the focal lenghts, but the camera position. So a crop from a a wide angle has ecaxtly the same perspective as a tele!

The different °foreground to background relationship° - I call it °image-space° - draws a important line between the different angles of the lenses.

It's not alwith possible to use just one lens; beeing in a small room with the idea to show it entirely, p.e. makes it hard. But still keeping the choice of lenses on 2 focal lenghts trough a entire serie - a 28 mm & 50 mm on FF, just a example - produce a nice interplay of two °visions°.

One solution to keep the °foreground to background relationship° constant is stitching; while enlarging the FOV, the °image-space° remains identical. It works....

It's true that perspective is determined by subject distance and vantage point. That's a valuable clarification. I think that one reason some people associate perspective with focal length is that they tend to be closer with wide angle lenses, at more middle distances with mid-focal length lenses and further away with longer lenses. That's not always the case but I think that it is, in part, why people start to get a certain sense of perspective from their various lenses.

People often talk, for example, about the sort of perspective they perceive when using, lets say, a 15 mm lens. And for a given framing with that lens, they might be, say, ten feet from a subject. To keep the same framing with a 50, one would have to back up considerably and that change in camera distance would indeed change perspective. So, I think its the net experience that some may be thinking of when they associate perspective with focal lengths. The two are not directly related but they often end up being indirectly associated in practice.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

does density determine the best focal length?

I've noticed in taking pictures at family events and outdoors in crowds, that the people density affects what feels like the right choice of lens. Two natural problems that I have to solve -- pulling people apart so that you see them individually, and relating a person in the near distance to their environment, require a wider angle lens when I am forced to work in very close quarters. One of the really nice side effects of the GR and GX-type cameras are their ability to work in crowds, because of wide angles and great depth of field. Sean's review of the GR-D2 opens with a picture that I don't think could have been made with a 35 or 50mm field of view. You can see a wide selection of interesting faces, and I suspect the closest people were no more than 2 feet from the camera, perhaps less.

So here's my proposal -- wide angles clarify a crowd by pulling things into the foreground, while longer focal lengths clarify by excluding what falls out of the field of view.

scott

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

When I took 2.5 months away from the wedding business (off season for Orthodox Jews) I took just one camera and one lens with me for street work. A 5D and 50mm. Absolutely love it. When I get shooting with my MPP and 135mm with a 6X12 back (45mm FF equivelent) next week I hope to show results that will very much put to rest any idea of a 'normal' focal length being boring! I've been doing all the peliminary scouting with my 5D and 50mm and I should have some pretty nice stuff to show!

Jerusalem Old City 5D, 50mm, iso 800 @ f2

 

[Chris Kresser]

I'm pretty excited by all of your responses. I ordered a GX100 and CV 35 VF yesterday, and I think I'll use that exclusively at 35mm for a period of time. I also have the 5D with 35/2, but I find it too large to carry around with me most of the time.

So, I'll probably use the GX100 @35mm for street photography / anytime I am away from home, and my 5D + 100/2 for portraits.

I also like the idea of working with a particular focal length/camera for each project. I think that might be a nice compromise between the flexibility of working with different lenses and the consistency and creative discipline that working with a single lens can invite.

 

[Donald Mann]

Harvey Penick

The great golf teacher, Harvey Penick said that the best way to learn to play golf well was go out for a round with only one ball in your bag. It focusses the mind and teaches you to plan your shots, carefully study the results, and places the onus on your effort, skill and powers of concentration, rather than your equipment.

I don't know what lens he would have recommended though ;-)

 

[Asher Kelman]

Donald,

I don't play golf but I still use one lens mostly. The 50 1.2 L now for the past year! For the Leica M8 it's 28mm. That way one works with one instrument.

Today however I add the 70-200 2.8L IS because I'm shooting with Frank Dorhooff in his workshop in L.A. There has to be a specific region for me to change lenses. Even with this shoot, the 50mm will be used half the time.

Asher

 

[Dierk Haasis]

Good advice to use one lens only for a time. It is something I do very often, going out with only one lens. I especially like a 35 mm or 50 mm, both asking the photographer to come up with good subjects and, much more important, interesting ways to stage them.

As long as it is not a super-zoom, even they teach you to look out for compositions suiting the focal lengths available. At times I am seen with Nikon's 10.5 mm FE mounted and nothing else with me; once or twice I have gone out with a Lensbaby ...

Actually it is one of my advices to newbies, to get a 50 mm lens [cheap, high optical quality, the fastest ones in any line-up] and use that - and nothing else!

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

The great golf teacher, Harvey Penick said that the best way to learn to play golf well was go out for a round with only one ball in your bag. It focusses the mind and teaches you to plan your shots, carefully study the results, and places the onus on your effort, skill and powers of concentration, rather than your equipment.

I don't know what lens he would have recommended though ;-)

To pursue the golf analogy, it sounds like you should have only one club, as well as only one ball (which you must not lose). That would be like the exercise in the film days where you had only a short length of film as well as one camera and one lens. But really, digital allows many shots, and narrowing the ways in which you take those shots -- simpler cameras, one focal length, makes it possible to get a stronger internal sense of how that camera sees what you saw. Isn't the objective to "blink and hold" and then somehow manage to share what you saw and held with others?

scott

 

[Brad Fernihough]

Late joining the conversation, but hey

I was always willing to carry my DSLR and 4 lenses (50mm, 24-105, 70-200, 16-35) with me, especially in the travel/landscape world, where one might be on a long trip/journey.

I did however, discover that this proves to be a pain in the.....when i recently visited NY for the first time.

After one day with the backpack on, i was done. So, for the next 10 days, i would choose a lens, and live with it for each day. What an eye opener.

Now, its one lens a day.

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Me too

I try to do that too but as a compromise, having all L glass pretty much, I bought a Tamron 28-300vr and was very happy with the results. I am not a pixel peeper by anymeans, but it was really nice to travel light and still get my shots in an acceptable IQ range.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Late joining the conversation, but hey

I was always willing to carry my DSLR and 4 lenses (50mm, 24-105, 70-200, 16-35) with me, especially in the travel/landscape world, where one might be on a long trip/journey.

I did however, discover that this proves to be a pain in the.....when i recently visited NY for the first time.

After one day with the backpack on, i was done. So, for the next 10 days, i would choose a lens, and live with it for each day. What an eye opener.

Now, its one lens a day.

I have been traveling through the Western Coast and now I am in NY. I have three lenses with me; 50, 17-40 and 70-200. The 50 has never left the bag. I end up carrying the 17-40 and 70-200 most of the time and I switch frequently. Like today, when we took a water taxi to see the NY Waterfalls and the Statue of Liberty, I couldn't survive without both the zoom power of the 70-200 and the panoramic view of the 17-40.

Having said that, there are some days when I only have the 17-40 on the camera. The 70-200 f2.8 is rather heavy if you need to carry it the whole day while overexerting yourself at the same time. I used to have the 24-105 before but have sold it. If I only had to have one lens all the time, I'd possibly buy that one again.

Cheers,

 

[Mike Shimwell]

I vary in my approach, but very often I'll choose a lens and use it for the day, or at least the walk. On Saturday we went to a local 'show' and took the 5D and 85 1.8 as a light kit to carry when out with the children. I'll post the 'story' later.

Mike

 

[nicolas claris]

Making new, with old stuff…

About 6 weeks ago, for our xx wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to go to Venice (the one in Italy). We love Italy (and Italians!).
Usually, when travelling for pleasure (I do a lot for work) I don't bring my gear, just a snap camera or even none.

For this time I felt I had to bring the 1Ds2. Marine, my wife, told me "you want to go to Venice with me with all your gear? it's gonna be a nightmare, you'll be always scared that it could be stolen, we'll have not a quiet minute!"
Of course she was right, so I said, "Ok, I'll bring only one lens, so I'll carry my cam like every tourist!"
We agreed on that…

Then came the very difficult decision for the choice of THE lens to bring.
Normally I should have chosen a "standard lens" anyone around 35 to 50mm.

But I'm not normal.

I like the extremes… so it will be a very wide or a very long…
The very long (in my case the Canon 500mm IS) was obviously impossible for such "quiet" travel.
So my choice went on the Sigma 12-24. The challenge to shoot into a city with a 12-24 is real… but I love this lens. The other challenge was to avoid postcard like pics…

The thread is HERE

 

[Mike Shimwell]

A mixed bag, but I've put some pics up on Flickr from our family visit to a local show on Saturday. 5D and 85 f1.8. Processed in DXo with only minimal intervention.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8808890@N08/sets/72157601722052073/

Any comments welcome.

Mike